Manchester City have confirmed Pep Guardiola will be their new manager for the start of next season.
The Blues have been heavily linked with Guardiola in recent years and speculation intensified when the Bayern Munich manager said he would be heading to the Premier League at the end of the season.
Pellegrini’s contract isn’t due to expire until 2017, but it had been widely suggested that this will be his last campaign at the club, which has now been confirmed.
“Manchester City can confirm that in recent weeks it has commenced and finalised contractual negotiations with Pep Guardiola to become MCFC head coach for the 16/17 EPL season onwards,” a club statement reads.
Guardiola has also been linked with a move to replace Louis van Gaal at the end of the season as Manchester United manager, but he will instead be at their city rivals. In fact, he is unbeaten in all four of his previous meetings with United (three wins and one draw).
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Anyone could have predicted this. Guardiola went from the best team in Spain to the best team in Germany to the richest team in the Premier League. No one ever accused Pep of relishing a challenge.